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Left Alternative

Left Alternative
Leader Collective leadership (Central Committee)
Founded 2008
Headquarters London

Left Alternative was a UK political party resulting from the split within Respect – The Unity Coalition in late 2007.

The party operated in England and Wales and was backed by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Soon after the split, the electoral label Left List was adopted and this label faced its first major electoral test in the London mayoral elections and London Assembly elections on 1 May 2008. Lindsey German, the Mayoral candidate, came seventh and in both the Mayoral and Assembly elections, Left List received less than 1% of the vote, well down on Respect's performance in 2004. The name Left Alternative was subsequently adopted.

The organisation's website ceased operation in mid-2009. The party deregistered from the Electoral Commission Register of Political Parties in April 2010.

Respect was created in January 2004, using the issue of the war in Iraq to mobilise its vote. Beyond this issue, it attempted to have a broad socialist agenda. Respect allows its members to hold membership of other political organisations and notably included the SWP. Respect's most high-profile figure has been George Galloway, then Respect Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 for "bringing the party into disrepute".

In September 2007, Galloway wrote a letter to Respect's national council members saying that the party was "too disorganised" and "faced oblivion" unless it reformed its internal party management. The letter also criticised the amount of money spent on the Organising for Fighting Unions conference and on an intervention at the Pride London LGBT rights event.


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